AT EASE, ANDERSON VALLEY. The Dr. McGhan matter has been amicably resolved. The wildly popular young doctor at the Anderson Valley Health Center was worried that the Center had reneged on one aspect of his contract. When word got out that McGhan was threatening to leave if he didn’t get satisfaction, FaceBook lit up in alarm. But by Monday morning the perceived contract prob had been soothed with the tried and true healing balm, cash-money. Everything is back to normal, if things in the Anderson Valley can ever be said to be entirely normal.

THE FOLLOWING MESSAGE, typical of many on local FaceBook pages, appeared last week:

“Terrible news. We are on the brink of losing an amazing person. Our friend Dr. Logan’s term as our beloved new physician is in jeopardy. After two years of dedicated and amazing service to our community, it is my understanding that the BOD has decided not to honor their promises to pay their half of the loan awarded to him by the state of California, instead offering him an embarrassing amount… Far less than the $5000 they paid for a mariachi band three weeks ago for their anniversary party… After everything he has already been through to stay and work with our community, giving his personal cell number, available 24/7 as an ear or friend we have got to recognize him and show our support. He is irreplaceable. We already almost lost him once! WE HAVE UNTIL FRIDAY! This is when the final decision will be made. I wish I had more information but at this time that is all I know. He has gone above and beyond his duty to serve this community and to fulfill his responsibilities as our family physician. ; Please contact the Board of Directors, write a letter, make a phone call and let’s see if there is anything we can do to show our support before it is too late. The link to their profiles is below: http://www.avhc.org/about/the-board/ ; My own personal feeling: It is so difficult to rent and live in the valley without the support of the community. And if we can't support him then what will happen when we try to bring another Dr. into the valley? We depend on the clinic and all the amazing people who work there, whose children go to school with our children. Who show up to birthday parties and community events. These are the people that recognize us and greet us with smiles.”

THE HEALTH CENTER BOARD RESPONDS: "The AVHC Board, with the generous support of community members, has established a fund to be used for loan repayment matching grants on behalf of our staff. A pledge has been made to the state in support of a matching grant for student loan repayment to Dr. McGhan. We expect Dr. McGhan to return to work the week of November 28th. The Board of the AVHC deeply appreciates the efforts of all of the employees of the Health Center in working together to continuously improve the quality of care that we provide for our patients. We will continue to do all that we can to support these efforts and to ensure the long-term viability and growth of the Anderson Valley Health Center organization. — Ric Bonner AVHC Board Chair

STAND DOWN, McGhan supporters, among whom I am as fervent as any. He’s not going anywhere.

CHLOE GUAZZONE-RUGEBREGT gets high marks for her handling of last week’s McGhan crisis, and it’s got to be said that McGhan himself could have handled it better, a lot better.

“MENDOCINO COUNTY Public Broadcasting is pleased to announce the appointment of Jeffrey Parker, a veteran newsman, media pioneer, publisher and social entrepreneur, as Interim Executive Director and General Manager of KZYX radio. Parker will take up the post on December 1, succeeding Diane Hering. A native of Santa Rosa with lifelong family ties to Mendocino County, Parker served two decades as a news agency reporter in New York, Washington, Beijing, Hong Kong and Taipei before co-founding an independent publishing company and dedicating many years to fostering sustainable, community-focused healthcare services in China and India. Parker resided mainly in China from 1990 until early 2016, when he returned to his roots with a desire to find new channels of service…” (KZYX press release)

Parker

WE WISH the guy well, but we wonder how a person with real outside world credentials like his, a conventional person like Parker apparently is, will fit with the hippie slugs perennially dominant at the sloppy Philo operation.

THE ECONOMY of Mendocino County runs on immigrant labor, especially the wine economy. Gang mopes are one thing, a son of the soil who racks up a DUI is another. The latter shouldn’t be deported or scapegoated. DA Eyster clarifies immigration policy in Mendocino County.

DA EYSTER: Here's my understanding. All fingerprints taken at the jail are shared with the FBI and other agencies, which means they eventually will find their way to ICE through some process. If ICE sees a "hit" of interest, ICE may attempt to lodge an immigration hold on the individual being held at the jail.

“I BELIEVE that Sheriff Allman is one of the Sheriffs who does not approve of holding an illegal alien arrestee solely on the authority of an ICE hold because of the Oregon case. Once a county jail inmate who is an illegal alien has completed his or her stay at the county jail, ICE has the authority to be here on release day and take him or her into custody. Sometimes they do this; many times they don't.

“IF AN ILLEGAL ALIEN is convicted of a serious or violent felony and not sent to state prison, I have been known to have my staff contact ICE and give them notice of the conviction and sentence. Sometimes ICE acts on this information; many times they don't. While I can't speak for the Sheriff, the DA's Office doesn't generally have the time nor the inclination to give the same attention to first-time and low-level misdemeanor offenders.

“THE ICE hold system has been broken for several years now resulting in hit-and-miss enforcement. Will that change in January? Not sure. I've always been told that it is difficult to get an ocean liner to change its course on a dime.

“FINALLY, the easiest way to avoid ICE concerns would be to not victimize others, not take things that to which one is not entitled, support one's family in a law-abiding manner, not do something that concludes with a law enforcement officer telling you to put your hands behind your back, not do something serious enough to have to go to jail for booking instead of being issued a citation, and not end up standing in front of a judge being sentenced to jail or prison for conduct deemed criminal by the California Legislature. Following these guidelines are simple for most; yet almost impossible for a certain percentage of those who live amongst us.”

AS LOCAL ELECTION results remain pending, and Mendocino remains in national first place for the slowest returns for all of America, the Supervisors plowed through an agenda of relatively trivial matters, including approval of full conversion of their Talmage property to a university emphasizing philosophy and ethics.

(THE SUPES seem unconcerned that Mendocino County, along with historically backwards Lake County, can't get the vote counted in a timely manner. The Supes and the Elections Clerk, Susan Ranochak, won't hire enough temps to help with the massive mail-in count, and won't restore the walk-in polling places that used to get most of Mendo counted by midnight, or at least by daybreak the day following an election. County Clerk Ranochak's recent appearance before the Supervisors was the usual opaque presentation typical of Mendo bureaucrats, with the Supes asking no questions as Ranochak walked off like her office was a veritable Swiss watch of civic functioning.)

BACK to the Buddhists. Their property is mostly the old state hospital established and maintained before America lost its way in the middle 1960s. Prior to the dismantling of state hospital systems, people unable or unwilling to care for themselves, along with drop-fall drunks and disabled dopers, were incarcerated in state hospitals until they got a grip on themselves. Mendocino County, with its usual keen sense of foresight, could have bought the Talmage property from the state for under a quarter mil, but turned it down because the then-Supes said they feared maintenance costs and, of course, couldn't figure out a paying use for the property.

THE BUDDHISTS scooped it up and have done what Mendo could have done as a site for Mendocino College — convert the beautiful premises to cash flow. But Mendo didn't, the Buddhists did, and soon The Great Wheel of Life will be churning out greenbacks as young people from all over the world ommmmmmm their days away at Talmage.

NEIGHBORS of the Buddhists, however, are unhappy with the expansion, but their complaints, when all wasn't said and much left undone, were ignored.

THE BUDDHISTS have also scooped up the old Albertinum property on the west side of Ukiah, leaving local Christian enterprise far, far behind.

EASILY THE MOST GROTESQUELY AWFUL EVENT ON THE NORTHCOAST MAYBE EVER

Healdsburg father suspected of drowning 4-year-old daughter in church

by Randi Rossmann & Julie Johnson

A Healdsburg father suspected of drowning his four-year-old daughter in the baptismal pool of a downtown church was arrested hours after he carried her unresponsive body to the nearby police department, police officials said Monday.

Ordaz

Gerardo Mendoza Ordaz, 42, stood, naked, in the back parking lot of the station Sunday night and cried out — calling for “help” and “police” — as he held his daughter, who was clothed, shoeless and soaking wet, said police officials.

Another child, a 9-year-old son who wore shorts but no shirt, was with his father and sister, police said.

The girl was rushed to a hospital, but she did not survive. The boy did not appear to be injured, according to police.

Investigators suspect Ordaz brought his children into the unlocked sanctuary of St. John the Baptist Catholic Church at East and Matheson streets. How long they were there wasn’t clear but at 8:30 p.m. they were outside the nearby Center Street station seeking help.

Burke said the church was routinely left unlocked on Sundays into the night for the public and police believe the family were the only ones inside. With his son as the only witness, Ordaz submerged his daughter in the one- to two‑feet‑deep baptismal pool in the sanctuary, estimated to be about 8 feet wide and ten feet long, said Lt. Matt Jenkins, who was overseeing the investigation.

“We do believe she was drowned intentionally,” said Healdsburg Police Chief Kevin Burke at a press conference held Monday afternoon.

Burke said Ordaz gave officers a detailed statement during a lengthy interview conducted in Spanish. The chief declined to comment on the man’s statement or answer questions regarding a motive for the alleged slaying. But he said the information, along with evidence found, was enough to arrest Ordaz on suspicion of murder. The man was booked Monday morning into the Sonoma County Jail without bail.

An autopsy on the little girl was held late Monday morning but results weren’t available late Monday afternoon. Her name hadn’t been released as of Monday evening.

A spokesman for the Santa Rosa diocese Monday afternoon said they were preparing to comment later in the day.

Ordaz and his wife had four children, including the girl and her 9-year-old brother, and the family lives just outside city limits, Burke said. Officers Monday planned to search the residence.

Officers spoke with child protective services officials about the case and the remaining three children were deemed to be safe with their mother and were left in her care, Burke said.

Classes at St. John’s church school and preschool, adjacent to the sanctuary, resumed Monday, but 9 a.m. mass was canceled. The front of the large church all day was cordoned off with yellow police tape, preserving any evidence inside for a Department of Justice forensics team due to go through the sanctuary later Monday afternoon. By evening that effort remained to be done, according to police.

A knock on the office door of Rev. Sean Rodgers Monday morning went unanswered. A parishioner later Monday afternoon just leaving the office said all questions were being referred to the diocese.

“It’s very shocking — it’s hard to believe,” said the parishioner, who only gave his first name, John.

Healdsburg resident Katie McDowell said she drove by St. John’s church Monday after seeing an online news report about the death. McDowell, who works as a caregiver for young children and who attended school and church at St. John’s, said the child’s death at the church was deeply upsetting.

“I’m so sad,” she said. “It’s Healdsburg. Such a small town. Scary things can happen.”

Homicide in Healdsburg is fairly rare. The last one was Dec. 14, 2008 – involving a fatal stabbing of a Healdsburg man and the arrest and eventual conviction of his girlfriend.

Sunday night, when the man arrived at the police station’s back door yelling for help, the first outside was Sgt. Scott Eland, who found the unusual scene of a shirtless boy and a naked man holding a wet, unconscious girl.

The scene was difficult for first responders who tried to resuscitate the little girl. She was taken by ambulance to Healdsburg District Hospital where attempts to revive her lasted about 90 minutes, Burke said.

“It’s a very complicated investigation. We’ve had staffing up all night,” said Burke. “It’s a very challenging and tragic case.”

Officers, firefighters and paramedics who responded to the call will be able to attend a debriefing on the troubling incident to talk and process what happened, the chief said.

(Santa Rosa Press Democrat)

LITTLE DOG SAYS, "Grandad said to me when I was a pup, 'Little Dog, you're not much for looks and you're kinda dumb, but always try to look your best.'"

SAME GUY?

Cloverdale Police Seeking Suspect in armed robbery, shooting.

by Julie Johnson

A man brought a bottle of wine to the county of the Cloverdale Food Center Sunday, then pulled out a gun and jumped over the counter during a violent robbery that ended when he shot at the clerk as he drove away, police officials said.

The clerk was not hit, and the single shot shattered the store’s glass door, Cloverdale Police Chief Stephen Cramer said.

The suspect was described as a white man about 6-foot-1 and 270 pounds wearing a camouflage knit cap, a black and red hooded sweatshirt and black pants. He was seen leaving in an older-model, four-door sedan with a damaged right-rear bumper.

The robbery was reported just before 6 p.m. Sunday at the store on the corner of East First Street and North Main Street. The clerk told police he was ringing up the bottle of wine when the man pulled out a semi-automatic firearm from his waistband and “violently grabbed the clerk by his shirt,” police said. The man jumped over the counter and took cash from the register.

The man fled the store, and as he drove away he fired a shot at the clerk, who had followed him outside to try to get a vehicle description, Cramer said.

Anyone with information about the case can call Officer Damian Eglesfield at 707-894-2150.

(Santa Rosa Press Democrat)

THERE WAS AN ARMED ROBBERY In Lakeport Sunday, Also One In Cloverdale Tonight @ 5:45 Pm

The following press release was issued by the Lakeport Police Department Sunday afternoon:

“On Sunday, November 20, at about 12:45 pm, Lakeport police responded to a reported armed robbery at Bruno's Shop Smart.

Prior to arrival, the suspect fled the scene in an unknown direction of travel. During the investigation, officers learned that a male subject, described as a white male adult with a brown mustache approximately five feet ten inches tall and weighing approximately 220-240 pounds approached the customer service counter, displayed a black colored handgun and demanded cash. The suspect fled the scene before getting money and his whereabouts are unknown.

The suspect is further described as wearing a blue beanie-style cap with yellow lettering, black mirror sunglasses, black canvas jacket, brown button up collared shirt, blue utility jeans and brown work boots.

The police department is encouraging citizens not to approach the suspect if seen and to call 911 as he is considered armed and dangerous.

Anyone with information is asked to call the Lakeport Police Dept. at 707-263-5491.

Officer Safety Bolo For Armed Robbery Suspect

The scanner just announced (6:31 pm) an "Officer Safety Be-On-the-Lookout" advisory after a "211" (armed robbery) at the Cloverdale Food Center, 138 East First Street in Cloverdale around 5:45 pm.

The suspect, who displayed a black semi-automatic handgun to the clerk, was described as being in his 30' or early 40's, having facial hair, wearing a black jacket with red sleeves and wearing a camo beanie.

The clerk was assaulted during the incident and went outside after the robbery to see what vehicle the suspect used -the suspect fired one round towards the front of the store.

The vehicle he left in (unknown direction of travel) was described as an older 90's model two-door Oldsmobile or Buick coupe.

(Courtesy, MendocinoSportsPlus)

WHAT TO DO ABOUT WOODHOUSE. We wrote last night that the Woodhouse family's attorney, Chris Neary of Willits, seems to be implying that someone, possibly the County, is poised to take action against Woodhouse. But the only action against the troubled Third District supervisor that could be taken is one on behalf of his wife. County officials have made it clear that they are staying out of the issue.

HOLD IT RIGHT THERE, in mid-poise. The DA's office could seek Woodhouse's removal based on possible criminal actions related to his blow-outs at home involving wife, family and sheriff's deputies. He had to be tasered, he pushed and shoved deputies, and bit one. His wife was endangered, according to reports. Our understanding is that DA could seek an 'adjudication' before a grand jury, which could lead to his removal if necessary.

FORT BRAGG SANCTUARY CITY Ad Hoc Committee to Meet on November 28

The Fort Bragg City Council's Sanctuary City ad hoc committee will hold a public meeting on Monday, November 28, 2016 at 3:00 PM and the community is welcome to attend. The meeting will be held at Fort Bragg Town Hall, 363 N. Main Street, Fort Bragg. The committee plans to report back to the City Council at its meeting that evening at 6:00 PM. Sanctuary City is a name given to a city in the United States that follows certain procedures that protect undocumented immigrants.

KZYX SURPRISES

by Sheila Dawn Tracy

An unexpected development appeared as an action item on the November 7th agenda of the KZYX Board of Directors meeting.

The Board was asked to vote on the recommendation of the Hiring Committee for the position of General Manager. Although the application for the position was posted on the station's website and Facebook page, advertised online nationally and in printed publications locally and in neighboring counties, no notice of the opening of the application process was broadcast over the station's own air waves. Mention of the intent for a Hiring Committee to begin the process was made at a prior Board meeting in late August but no announcement of meeting dates was forthcoming despite written station policy to do so.

Attendance of the Ukiah meeting was sparse, consisting of nine people in total, four of whom were members of the Community Advisory Board (CAB). Three Board members, Directors Keller, Eubank and Azzaro were absent.

According to the summary of the Committee's proceedings, twelve applications were received of which four were vetted by Committee members. Two candidates were chosen to be interviewed though no details of the other candidates were given. In response to a question of whether confidentiality of personnel information extended to applicants, Director Stuart Campbell replied that it did.

A substantial portion of the meeting was devoted to discussing the qualifications of the recommended candidate, Terry Green, formerly of KUSP of Santa Cruz. Board members responded to CAB member, Tom Melcher's request for more information on Mr. Green's termination from KUSP nine months before the station filed for bankruptcy. Stating that although it raised a red flag, the Board was satisfied that the station's financial problems were not due to Green's management.

The Board voted to offer the General Manager position to Green who declined an invitation to attend the meeting, stating that it might be perceived that he was lobbying the Board in his favor. Campbell stated that contract details would be finalized and a starting date would be determined.

It appears the KZYX Board of Directors had a surprise of their own in store. For reasons unknown, Mr. Green declined the station's offer. On Friday, November 18th, the Board announced that it had offered the position to Jeffrey Parker, a veteran newsman who had worked with Reuters news agency and covered stories out of such varied places as New York, Washington and Beijing among others. Parker had been living in China from 1990 to 2016 and had applied for the position of GM in 2015 while still living in China. According to the Board's press release, Parker also has experience as a social entrepreneur, working with a non-profit as a community advocate to provide sustainable health care services in China and India. While overseas, Parker listened to KZYX daily via webstream and the Jukebox archives. He has supported the station as a sustaining member and has returned to Mendocino County where he will begin serving as Interim General Manager on December 1st. The Board has stated its intention to remove the Interim GM status and vote for Parker to be the Executive Director and General Manager at its January meeting.

In other station news, Interim GM, Diane Hering will be taking a medical leave of absence for the months of December and January and expects to return in mid February to her former staff position as Membership Coordinator.

Preparations for the upcoming Board election in March are being made. Director Jonathan Middlebrook will act as Election Coordinator. Three board seats mare available: The At-Large seat (residency requirement of Mendocino County or contiguous counties), District 3 (Willits Laytonville and Covelo areas) and District 4 (Fort Bragg and north coast areas). In another surprise announcement, Director Futcher stated that both she and Board President, Meg Courtney will not be seeking a second term. Applicants must be members in good standing by Dec. 31st. The application process closes Jan. 30th.

Director Campbell reported on developing proposals on sick leave and vacation policy. As a result of not having a written policy, one long time staff member was allowed to accrue unused vacation and sick leave pay which amounted to a 14K on budgeted station liability. The sick leave policy explicitly states that benefits are intended as protection against illness and will not be paid out upon employment termination. Vacation pay applies to full time staff and a cap of maximum accrual was devised according to years of service. A public meeting of the Bylaws and Policy Committee proposed for December will be announced.

As Treasurer, Campbell offered a fiscal report that showed the station having a net loss of $45K as of Oct. 31st. Due to an August transition of management, a planned short summer drive that was expected to bring in $30K did not occur. The Fall pledge drive brought in $85K but fell short of the $120K needed to make up the difference. Membership renewal letters had been delayed due to the installment and training of the new Allegiance software. The station’s line of credit of $75K has dwindled to an available balance of $3.6K in order to make payroll and pay other expenses. Federal funds from a Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) grant of $121K have been awarded of which 70% is expected to arrive soon.

Campbell stated that a six-month budget revision is necessary to make adjustments for revenue shortfall as well as prepare for changes in Federal law which have mandated salary increases for overtime exempt status employees which will double as of Dec.1st from $23.6K to $47.5K. He noted that pending legal action may affect implementation or its applicability to a nonprofit.

General Manager's Report--The report was read as Hering is not able to attend evening meetings.

Operations--The Ukiah studio is now operational as a news production facility due to the efforts of Operations Manager, Rich Culbertson. The Program Director position is still part time despite the many responsibilities of the job. Current PD, Alice Woeffle-Erskin has some ideas to present to the new GM. The station's website will be converting to a new web platform that is more adaptable to content changes. Several staff members will be attending webinar training in the near future.

Programming--Valerie Kim will take maternity leave in mid December. Jason Morash, hired to cover Lake County news, will be taking on a larger role in the News Dept.

Community Advisory Board Report (CAB)--The total sum of the CAB report given by member Tony Novelli was that the group was close to nailing down a date and location for an upcoming meeting. The only public meeting held this year was on the coast in February. The three inland members did not attend. The CAB has fallen far short of its goals to have public meetings every other month. However, they did manage a private meeting at the home of Director Campbell which was deemed "improper" by a CPB spokesperson.

Public Comment--CAB member, Ellen Saxe addressed the unfinished business of the CAB. She suggested that the focus of the proposed meeting be to gather information on what priorities members thought should be brought to the attention of the incoming GM. She also thought that questions for a survey could be formulated from members input to be included with the election ballot.

Tom Melcher thought an on air program with the CAB and the GM might be more successful in getting a good public response than a public meeting that has not had a high turn out in the past. I read Sect 3.3 of the Policy Manual to the Board which states that all meetings are open to the public. It also stipulates a noticing requirement of 5 days on air and 5 days posting at the main studio. I informed the Board that I would send a certified letter to them requesting the minutes of several closed meetings which had not been responded after several previous requests. I commented that a Strategic Plan for the station had not been developed in ten years even though a template had been prepared by former Board Secretary, Katharine Cole in 2011. I thought that since the organizational details had been done, it would not be difficult to update the plan to reflect the current station needs. In my years of observing the operating procedures of the Board, I have noticed a consistent pattern of ignore, delay and forget in regard to members requests for information and long range planning. My final comment was that although an on air CAB program was a good idea, I felt strongly that it shouldn't act as a replacement for an on site public meeting.

Campbell responded to remarks I had made pertaining to when and by whom the title of Executive Director had been added to the previous Director's contract by stating that the title had no legal standing and did not give any powers or responsibilities to distinguish it from those of the GM. I was allowed to respond that that had not been my experience as a former programmer and employee. I then shared my experience that a former GM had intercepted, opened and responded to a letter addressed to the Board under the alleged authority of Executive Director.

A more compelling argument for not including an empty title in the GM contract is that the only Directors recognized in the Bylaws are those elected by the members or programmers of the station. To confer the title of Director to staff can only serve to confuse the clear boundaries of authority.

The Board concluded its meeting by outlining areas of priority for future board action including volunteer training and long range planning. The next board meeting is scheduled for January 2nd in Willits. Location TBA.

America didn’t get what it expected, but perhaps it got what it deserved, good and hard. Daddy’s in the house and he busted straight into the nursery and now the little ones are squalling in horror. Mommy was discovered to be a grifting old jade who ran the household into a slum and she’s been turned out to solemnly await the judgment of the courts, nowhere to run, nowhere to hide. The kids on campus have gone temporarily insane over this domestic situation and some wonder if they’ll ever get over it.

Trump as The USA’s Daddy? Well, yeah. Might he turn out to be a good daddy? A lot of people worry that he can’t be. Look how he behaved on the campaign trail: no behavioral boundaries…uccchhh. He even lurches as he walks, like Frankenstein. Not very reassuring — though it appears that somehow he raised up a litter of high-functioning kids of his own. Not a tattoo or an earplug among them. No apparent gender confusion. All holding rather responsible positions in the family business. Go figure….

Judging from the internal recriminations among Democratic Party partisans playing out in the newspapers, it’s as if they all woke up simultaneously from a hypnotic trance realizing what an absolute dud they put up for election in Hillary Clinton — and even beyond that obvious matter, how deeply absurd Democratic ideology had become with its annoying victimology narrative, the incessant yammer about “diversity” and “inclusion,” as if pixie dust were the sovereign remedy for a national nervous breakdown. But can they move on from there? I’m not so sure.

For all practical purposes, both traditional parties have blown themselves up. The Democratic Party morphed from the party of thinking people to the party of the thought police, and for that alone they deserve to be flushed down the soil pipe of history where the feckless Whigs went before them. The Republicans have floundered in their own Special Olympics of the Mind for decades, too, so it’s understandable that they have fallen hostage to such a rank outsider as Trump, so cavalier with the party’s dumb-ass shibboleths. It remains to be seen whether the party becomes a vengeful, hybrid monster with an orange head, or a bridge back to reality. I give the latter outcome a low percentage chance.

Mommy is all about feelings and Daddy’s role is action and that is another reason that Hillary lost and Trump won. We’ve heard enough about people’s feelings and it just doesn’t matter anymore. You’re offended? Suck an egg. Someone appropriated your culture? Go shit in your sombrero. What matters is how we’re going to contend with the winding down of Modernity — the techno-industrial orgy that is losing its resource and money mojo. The politics of sacred victimhood has got to yield to the politics of staying alive.

President-elect Trump may not know it yet, but events are now in charge, not personalities, not even his super-sized persona. Global trade and economic activity have been winding down all year and it’s finally affecting financial markets kept aloft on borrowed money, sending a strong signal through bonds that the borrowed money may never be paid down, and that additional borrowing will cost a whole lot more — so much more that it will bankrupt the nations that issue it.

That alone will make it difficult for a President Trump to scare up the ready cash for the infrastructure-rebuilding fiesta so many expect. And if he does manage to flush the funding out of the banking thickets, it is liable to carry an inflationary bird flu that will end up killing money all around the world. We won’t be worrying about Trans Pacific Partnerships anymore because letters-of-credit will be unavailable to move large shipments of anything from Point A to Point B. How long after that will it be before the supermarket shelves empty down? And in the event, what will the dollar buy?

It looks like the shit sandwich President Obama has carefully prepared and left in the White House pantry for his successor will take the form of inflation, the dying of your money — or, at least, paper currency. Or, if it doesn’t die outright, prepare for the possibility that you might not be able to get your hands on it, as money markets gate their exits and banks restrict cash withdrawals.

Though it’s clearly a loser strategy now, I suspect that the ragged remains of the Democratic Party will persist in amping up their sacred identity grievances to the point of civil strife without ever understanding the economic dynamics in motion. They don’t know what else to do. Plus, they are captives of the poverty policy racketeers. I also suspect that neither Mr. Obama or Mr. Trump will get around to pardoning Hillary Clinton for the racketeering operation of her foundation, of which the private email server was the least issue — rather, the arrant sale of influence and access to the State Department is the heart of the matter, and anyone paying attention knows it, including the incoming Attorney General. If that circus comes to town, Trump could benefit from the distraction it offers the public.

There’s a lot of talk on the Net about Strauss and Howe’s “Fourth Turning” taking stage now. That excellent book, published twenty years ago, posits the turbulent end of 80-year generational cycles in history. (Blogger Jim Quinn lays it out nicely this week at The Burning Platform). Previous Fourth Turning presidents Lincoln and Franklin Roosevelt took the nation through epic bloodbaths and economic dislocation. Donald Trump in terms of demeanor is no Lincoln and no FDR. But he did raise up those children of his somehow, and that’s all we’ve got to go on for the moment.

Jack Newfield was a Village Voice reporter, a Brooklyn Dodger fan, and a friend of mine. When I was in Columbia, South Carolina in the winter of 1967/68, I received in the mail from Jack and his friend Paul Gorman, the first album by the singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen, with a note that said “Isn’t this amazing?” When I saw Jack I asked him what was so amazing? He said the record reminded him of the songs I used to sing for friends in his living room. Jack meant the Leonard Cohen comparison as a compliment but I, in my arrogance, did not take it as one.

One of Jack's signature moves as a journalist was to make analogies between people in disparate fields, like "Robert Kennedy is the Senate's Albert Camus." Sometimes you could see the likeness, sometimes you couldn't. So I wrote Jack this song, which once was topical but now requires annotation.

Norman Mailer is Ho Chi Minh

Janice Ian is Staughton Lynd

Richie Goldstein is really Richard Goodwin

and I’m Jack Newfield, I’m Jack Newfield

I’m Jack Newfield, who are you?

Norman Mailer was a US American writer who hit the scene after World War II with a novel called The Naked and the Dead. In ’67 or ’68 he ran for mayor of New York City and Jack was involved with the campaign. Ho Chi Minh was the president of North Vietnam. Janice Ian is a folk-rocker who had some big hits, starting with “Seventeen.” Staughton Lynd is a political organizer, the son of brilliant sociologists. In the spring of ’63, Lynd was teaching at Spelman College in Atlanta. The Lynds lived upstairs from the Zinns, Howard and Roz, and they were all involved with the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee. The night I arrived to stay with the Zinns, the Lynds’ baby fell out of a second story window (but was okay). Lynd became a lawyer late in life, has always fought on the side of the underdog.

Richard Goldstein wrote cultural criticism for the Voice. Later he edited a very good, short-lived magazine called US that was the size of a mass-market paperback. In recent years Goldstein has been writing obituaries for the New York Times. He was very small-boned and sweet-looking, in total contrast to Richard Goodwin, a big-boned, brutish-looking politico employed by the Kennedy Administration. I was present once when Goodwin visited Lillian Hellman in Martha’s Vineyard in the summer of 1964. He had just represented the U.S. at a meeting of the Organization of American States in Punta Del Este, Uruguay. At this time Che Guevara had dropped out of sight and everyone was wondering what he was doing and where? Goodwin told Hellman that Che and Fidel had had “a homosexual falling-out.” After he left I asked Hellman if she believed Goodwin’s bizarre info. Ol’ Lil (who was then younger than I am now) said she didn’t rule it out. “He has that fag face,” she said of Che.

Joey Archer is Baby Blue

RFK of course, Camus

Tom Hayden’s Carol Baker’s new guru

And I’m Jack Newfield...

Joey Archer was a welterweight boxer whose fights were covered and whose psyche was analyzed in the Village Voice… Baby Blue was seemingly a chick kissed off by Bob Dylan —unless she was the personification of the Fake Left, which Jack heard from someone in Dylan’s entourage… RFK was Robert F. Kennedy, who Jack admired and befriended… Albert Camus was a French novelist… Tom Hayden, a leader of the peace movement, had not yet gotten involved with a famous actress, but my guess was in the right direction. Tom and I are on okay terms as old men after a long split. In the '70s I called him the leader of the Fake Left and his wife said it was a shame that I had lost my mind. Tom was in Jack's pantheon with Dylan, Pynchon, Bobby Kennedy, Mario Cuomo, Jimmy Breslin, Jose Torres, and Robert Moses.

Robert Moses is Robert Parris

Ed Sanders is Roger Maris

Mr. Jones is really Mrs. Harris

and I’m Jack Newfield...

Robert Moses, a leader of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, got fed up with the personal publicity and said he’d rather be known as Robert Parris (which I think was his middle name). He married a woman I’d gone to high school with and will always love. The last time I heard her voice (1988) it was on a phone answering machine, asking, “What have you done for Black people today?” Ed Sanders is a real prime mover — maybe the prime mover — in the marijuana legalization movement. With Allen Ginsberg he started a group called Lemar in 1964. Roger Maris broke Babe Ruth's home run record in an extended season. Mr. Jones, Jack claimed, referring to the square in the Dylan song who doesn’t know what’s happening, was Joan Baez, who had married a draft resister, David Harris, who went to prison. Jack knew people who knew Dylan and he was always getting info-tidbits, not all of them accurate. This one seemed especially far-fetched.

Warren Hinckle is Max Lerner

Eldridge Cleaver is Otto Kerner

Tina Aptheker’s really Nat Turner

and I’m Jack Newfield...

Warren Hinckle was the flamboyant publisher of Ramparts Magazine. When Hayden asked in June '68 if I could come to Chicago and put out a daily leaflet with a map to coordinate actions on the streets, Hinckle said, "We'll do it as a wallposter! One side news from the streets, one side news from the convention!" And we did! Max Lerner was a liberal columnist for the New York Post. Eldridge Cleaver, author of “Soul on Ice,” became a prominent Black Panther. Otto Kerner had been the governor of Illinois during the protests at the 1968 Democratic National Convention. A commission headed by Kerner would conclude that the turmoil amounted to a “police riot.” Bethina Aptheker, a feminist professor at UC Santa Cruz, was the daughter of a Communist Party historian who, she would eventually claim, had molested her as a little girl. Nat Turner led a slave revolt that William Styron based a novel on.

Norman Fruchter is Johnny Carson

Dick Aurelio is Don Larsen

Antonioni is also Barbara Garson

And I’m Jack Newfield...

Norman Fruchter organized a group of lefty filmmakers called Newsreel. Johnny Carson was host of the Tonight show, holding the country together with his sane commentaries after insane days. Richard Aurelio was press secretary to the mayor of New York City, John Lindsay. In the mid-70s Aurelio was handling public relations for Erhard Seminar Training. (I wonder if Bill and Hillary took the est “training?”) Michelangelo Antonioni was an Italian filmmaker whose movie set in the U.S., Zabriskie Point, did not ring true in any way. The dialogue that I and four other writers contributed got vetoed by the miscast actor and actress. Barbara Garson was the author of a brilliant little play about Lyndon Johnson called MacBird. Her ex-husband Marvin was a natural humorist who moved to Israel and sends occasional letters to the AVA. Barbara and I wrote a comedy with songs called “Going Co-op” that got produced off-off-Broadway but I never got to see because I moved back to California to work on a paper run by some women who were as angry as I was.

Hale Boggs’ daughter married LeRoi Jones

Andy Kopkind is I.F. Stone

Fred Gardner, I know him: none other than Leonard Cohen

and I’m Jack Newfield, I’m Jack Newfield

I’m Jack Newfield, so are you.

Hale Boggs was a Congressman from Louisiana, the Speaker of the House for many years, and the author of federal mandatory-minimum legislation passed in 1951 that has resulted in countless years of misery for countless millions of Americans. His daughter, Cokie Roberts, became an influential reporter/pundit, married a New York Times reporter named Steve Roberts, and wrote a book giving advice for marital success. (Hale Boggs’s son Tommy ran the most influential lobbying firm in DC for many years, his top client being Big PhRMA.) LeRoi Jones was a poet and writer who took the name Imiri Baraka, moved back to New Jersey, and became ever sharper in his criticism of capitalism. He testified before the House Un-American Activities Committee that Tom Hayden (author of a book called Rebellion in Newark) was not a spokesman for the Black people of that city. Andrew Kopkind was a journalist whose New York Review of Books piece about the court martial of Capt. Howard Levy (for refusing to train the Green Berets in the healing arts because their ulterior motive was not benign) called attention to dissent inside the Army. IF Stone was a lefty journalist from an earlier generation. The Rolling Stones need no annotation. Leonard Cohen is a Canadian poet/novelist whose nasal drone reminded Jack Newfield of your correspondent. Cohen is still touring, drawing adoring throngs. I’m recording the songs I can remember on GarageBand. Here's one I played for Jack in 1988 and he said it reminded him of...

PS, November 2016, Goodbye, Tom and RIP Leonard Cohen. For all my ambivalence about them, I feel diminished.

* * *

(Note from an old Peace Corps volunteer Dave Macaray making some good points.)

Fred,

Nice lively article.

I loved your impressionistic, wonderfully stylized piece. My only memory of Hale Boggs was that he tried to make it a “crime" for Peace Corps volunteers (nominal employees of the State Dept) to publicly protest the Vietnam War. I was a PC volunteer in India at the time.

Forgive me for quibbling — and believe me, I realize I’m nitpicking — but as a former baseball historian one of my pet peeves is hearing how Maris broke Ruth’s record in an “extended” season (162 games to Ruth’s 154).

Ruth never faced a single African-American pitcher, never faced a marquee reliever, never played a game while suffering jet lag, and never saw even one pitch thrown at night under the lights (statistics confirm that hitters are more productive in day games).

Participants will learn the basic taxonomic identifying features that distinguish mushrooms from each other; where each unique mushroom species can be found; when they can be found; their uses such as: food, medicine, dyes, bioremediation; and the myths associated with them. The workshop consists of a lecture, Powerpoint slideshow, hands-on look of mushrooms collected and displayed for each workshop, and a field walk to find mushrooms associated with the Gardens' native plant communities, with a focus on students using the identification tools provided at the workshop to key mushrooms.

Class cost is $25 for members and Master Gardeners; $35 for non-members (includes Gardens admission for the day). Payment is due upon sign-up. Please note, all workshop fees are non-refundable unless the workshop has been canceled or rescheduled by the Gardens.

Sign up by phoning in your payment at 707-964-4352 ext. 16 or reserve your spot in person at The Garden Store at MCBG.

Class size is limited! Each workshop is limited to 20 participants. A waiting list of up to five attendees will be kept in the event of a cancellation. If there is a cancellation by 4:00pm on the Friday before the class, people on the waitlist will be contacted by store staff of the opening.

TIME TO BUILD OUR COLLECTIVE STRENGTH

Dear Friends,

I write to you on Wednesday, November 9th, the day after the election. The morning sun’s bright warmth does not diminish the queasy dread rising, like a cold tide, over what I had dared to hope was a better world.

The letter I wrote you last week now reads like a note from an alternate universe — one where reason, truth, science, and law could usefully be invoked, if not suffice, in the struggle for justice and the protection of our living world. From an America working to correct some of its worst mistakes, slowly changing, in its awkward fitful way, mostly for the better.

In that world, the path ahead for friends of the Eel River and her fish is clear enough, though hardly without serious obstacles. PG&E’s Eel River dams are now up for federal relicensing. That means dam removal is now on the table. Donate today to support dam removal on the Eel River. (http://eelriver.us7.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=1260e76581786d9b486399431&id=46569b7337&e=4535228e31) Not that it will be easy to secure removal of the Eel River dams. The interests who benefit from the dams are wealthy and well-connected. They are not shy about using power and money to hold on to Eel River water to which they feel entitled. But with your help, we now have the once in a lifetime chance to take out the two dams on the mainstem Eel that cripple Eel River salmon and steelhead recovery.

Law, facts, science, and the pull of history all say it’s time to decommission and remove the Eel River dams. The upper dam has blocked the critical upper reaches of the watershed for a century. Hundreds of miles of now-inaccessible coldwater streams should be raising salmon and steelhead. Instead, the dams continue to harm the fish that do manage to spawn.

To secure new federal licenses, dams must comply with basic requirements. The historic agreements to remove four Klamath River dams were largely driven by the fact that even those large facilities don’t produce enough power to cover the costs of fixing the dams to protect downstream water quality and provide fish passage for native salmon. The Eel River dams have the same problems — but the paltry nine megawatts of seasonal peak power they produce probably don’t even cover PG&E’s maintenance costs.

To be sure, to save the Eel and the watershed’s web of life, to renew the promise the earth will be able to support future generations of fish, animals, and people in this amazing place, we will have to do more than remove the Eel River dams. As critical as that upper basin habitat will be in coming decades, it’s not just about the fish. It’s also about water politics, sustainable energy production, and most of all, how we can live without destroying nature’s capacity to provide for us.

Everyone is implicated by these questions. But the people who have always been part of this place are most directly affected. As a society, we have legal and moral obligations to Native peoples, none greater than to ensure the survival of the fish runs which have always been central to their culture. One of our most important tasks in the work ahead will be to support tribal communities in their demands. Here again, in last week’s America, removal of the Eel River dams was beginning to look not just right and necessary, but also likely under any reasonable application of the laws.

But that is not the world we live in now. To secure meaningful changes for North Coast rivers, we must press back against the malign forces that will now reign over an unchecked Republican majority. The facts and science have not changed. But the federal government will now be entirely controlled by a party that has chosen to reject reason and evidence, especially in environmental policy, and which has made anti-environmentalism a central plank in its extremist platform.

The very laws which should protect our clean water and threatened species will now be the focus of Republican demolition efforts, in Congress, in the federal agencies, and ultimately in the federal courts. We know they will seek to roll back the Clean Water Act and the Endangered Species Act. We know the hydropower industry has already been pushing to gut the public safety and environmental laws which we must depend on to see that the Eel River dams are removed.

Against willful blindness, we must continue to insist that our society move forward to solve real problems, not just defend an unsustainable status quo. We must work together with all our allies to defend our laws, to reinforce our demands that natural treasures as precious as the Eel’s fish never be sacrificed to extinction for the convenience of a powerful few.

The struggle will rise on many fronts. Taking down the Eel River dams must be among them.

Send comments to the Sonoma County Water Agency asking them to stop diverting Eel River water into the Russian River.

25TH ANNUAL PROFESSIONAL PIANIST CONCERT JANUARY 6-8

UKIAH CA. – The weekend of January 6 - 8, 2017 marks the 25th Anniversary of The Professional Pianist Concert. In celebration of this momentous occasion, there will be three concerts featuring 12 different pianists. Featured performers this year are William Beatty, Spencer Brewer, Elena Casanova, Wendy deWitt, John Gilmore, Frankie J, Tom Ganoung, Chris James, Elizabeth MacDougall, Ed Reinhart, Paula Samonte, Charlie Seltzer and John Simon. The music will range from classical to jazz, boogie-woogie to Cuban, Broadway to ragtime.....each performance will be different! A special treat this year will be vocalist Paula Samonte joining different performers each evening.

The series features seven pianists on stage each evening in a living room environment throughout the event trading stories and songs with two pianos on stage to accommodate impromptu collaborations. This popular event is an annual sellout because of the diversity, a multitude of styles of music and uproarious humor that takes place throughout the evening. There will also be a special 25-year retrospective video presentation.

Friday, January 6 will feature William Beatty, Spencer Brewer, Elena Casanova, John Gilmore, Elizabeth MacDougall, Ed Reinhart and Charlie Seltzer. Saturday, January 7 will feature Spencer Brewer, Elena Casanova, Wendy deWitt, Tom Ganoung, Chris James, Elizabeth MacDougall and John Simon. Sunday afternoon’s performance will feature Spencer Brewer, Elena Casanova, Tom Ganoung, Frankie J, Chris James, Elizabeth MacDougall and Ed Reinhart. No two concerts will be the same, so if you love piano and piano music, enjoy more than one performance... they all will be different!

Tickets are on sale at Mendocino Book Co. and dig Music! in Ukiah, Mazahar in Willits and Watershed Books in Lakeport. Tickets are $15 general admission and $25 "I ‘Wanna’ See the Hands" limited seating. For more information call (707) 707-391-8374.

The Ukiah concert benefits the Mendocino College Foundation and the Allegro Scholarship Program. Sponsors are Sparetime Supply, Ken Fowler Auto, Savings Bank of Mendocino, Mendocino College Foundation, Ukiah Civic Light Opera, Willits Furniture Center, Waterman Plants, K-WINE/MAX, KOZT-The Coast and KZYX/Z. There will be autographed CD's by the artists for sale in lobby. Refreshments will be provided by Ukiah Civic Light Opera.

The play, set in England in the Spring of 1912, opens with the celebration of a somewhat typical family event; typical at least for the era in which the play is set — the announcement of their daughter’s engagement to her father’s business cohort. The father and his daughter’s fiancé are pleased at the assurance of business success this engagement portends. The mother is also certain that it’s a good and right match. She is secure in her role as head of the household and enjoys her privileged status. They have a maid. And two children, now young adults, a boy and a girl. There is a profound sense of self-satisfaction in the parents. The kids show signs of the usual discontent with parental attitudes. Undercurrents of dissatisfaction abound in this provincial Edwardian family.

Nonetheless, the evening of pompous celebration seems to be going according to Hoyle. The father grandstands from his pedestal, a literal pedestal — a raised step off the living room that goes to the kitchen, making pronouncements, one after the other. The future son-in-law ingratiates himself to the father while paying attentive afterthoughts to the daughter. The daughter is doubtful about the extent of her suitor's attention and love. The mother lays down the law in no uncertain terms — “Nonsense!” she says of her daughter’s doubts. The son, seemingly unhappy to his core, drinks too much. All is sealed by the presentation of the engagement ring.

And thus, we all are engaged in this dubious portrayal of smug satisfaction and privilege. Until … the Inspector Calls.

The Inspector is played to perfection by Bob Cohen. He is in every aspect of the role, clearly and mysteriously present. In the denouement, he ascends to the step/pedestal previously used by the father. A subtle but important gesture, and a good directorial choice.

All performances were turned and trimmed with the precision of an Edwardian barber; and in the end, the cut went to parents on one side and kids on the other. They are the future and we place our hope in them.

There are some directorial choices that have me guessing. The costuming. Interesting. I spent time in attempts to decipher it. I wanted to understand why; but never got there. I let it go. An Edwardian aspect — “Edgewardian” as noted in the program. This aspect prevailed in gesture and in tone, and ultimately, moved the action forward.

Program notes tell us that the play has a clear and one-sided political viewpoint.

The setting is England, 1912. In the father’s pedantic style, he “assures” everyone that investments will be good, there will be no war, no class differences, no raises in wages. In sardonic reversal, his speech is a presage, an omen or portent of WWI (and of all the wars since and present).

It is a Who Done It with many suspects and, the butler didn’t do it. There is no butler. There is a maid. Nor did not do it. 2) This is a whodunit that has so many suspects you wonder if the Inspector is going to start questioning members of the audience.

“There is a supernatural element that creeps in”. 3) The supernatural element creeps mysteriously in. Having been told there is one, I attempted, during the intermission, to guess what it might be. None of my guesses were right! There is nothing like the element of surprise in a Who Done It.

The director calls the play a parable. According to Wiktionary a parable is “a simple story used to illustrate a moral or spiritual lesson, as told by Jesus in the Gospels.”

The Inspector Calls speaks to a mysterious element that engages mind, spirit, and soul, long after the the final curtain. When the Inspector Calls, we must all reflect upon our part.

The Inspector Calls is shown through December 11.

Tix: (707) 937-4477

NOTA BENE

Update from Zen Hostel in Gainesville, Florida

Spent yesterday at the Temple of the Universe in Gainesville, Florida chanting mantrams, and attended a comprehensive lecture by founder Mickey Singer. His theme was allowing the garbage in your mind to be let go of until emptiness is achieved, and then you may enjoy unalloyed bliss continuously. In India this is called Sahaj Samadhi Avastha. But let's bring this down to the playing field. Moment to moment, do not be attached to anything at all, and you will go where you need to go, and you will do what you need to do, because you are identified with that which is prior to consciousness. Nota bene: If you have anything of an enlightened creative nature in progress that will be effective at the J20 inauguration dissent in Washington, D.C. (or elsewise useful on the planet earth), I invite you to contact me if appropriate at CraigStehr@inbox.com

This timeless abstract is just as fresh and inspiring today as it was 35 years ago . . . not to be missed by someone who loves the unique light and beauty of Mendocino bay at sunset. This painting was done by one of Mendocino’s Treasures! Crate it up and ship it to decorate your office in Seattle or penthouse on 5th Avenue — or hang it in a place of honor in your 1860’s victorian, 1960’s handcrafted house, or your cunningly designed Y2K escape. Well-suited to all architectural and furniture styles, it would also be extremely impressive in a winery tasting room or a B&B suite.

Hilda Pertha was the very first artist that Bill Zacha hired to teach painting classes at the Mendocino Art Center in the 1950’s. In 1980, Bill built her an inspiring studio and apartment above his Bay Window Gallery that had a beautiful deck overlooking Mendocino bay. There, she lived and worked for the next 30 years. She was a mentor and a dear friend.

“Sea to Sky" was Hilda's celebration of her new studio and the magnificent view of the ocean from her deck. It was the star of her show of new work in 1981: the incredible light. Incorporating all the colors of pastel sunsets with soft shades of blues and greens, and uniquely metaphysical with suggestions of a silhouette and cycling cormorants, her lifelong friend Charles Stevenson described it as being “a window into her soul—and certainly one of her best works.”

To good home only: $5,000 or best offer . . . Please contact me to arrange a showing or for photos. (I am on the coast and could bring it to you.) Serious buyers/collectors only.

Not only is Hamilton sold out forever, it’s nearly unaffordable for anyone. A friend of mine is a lighting designer with some Broadway credits. There’s a pool of tickets for each performance set aside for industry insiders. They still have to pay for them, but at least they can get them. My friend has been inundated with requests for tickets. People who haven’t talked to him years are trying to get him to just give them tickets to this show. It’s incredible. His agent, who has a number of other clients of course, has told all his clients to just stop asking for the tickets. He’d have to hire another assistant just to deal with the requests.

So if the snowflakes on the Right want to boycott “Hamilton,” nobody will notice.

And, by the way, I was disappointed that Pence walked out during the actor’s lecture from the stage. I would have cringed nearly unto death had I been there when the actor decided to do that, but Pence should have stood there and listened with a smile, and then invited the cast to the White House. That’s what a man with the faith and courage of his convictions would have done. Not just to “kill them with kindness,” but to demonstrate that even in a Broadway theatre, even the cast of the hottest show in decades is not above the Vice President of the United States.

I think Pence handled it as well as he’s ever shown himself to handle anything, and Trump is living up to his own well-established subterranean standards such as they are. I just wish, once in a while, somebody with some self-respect, style, and largeness of personality would ever make it to a high office.

Ravel's Piano Concerto for the Left Hand and The New World, the second concert of the Ukiah Symphony Orchestra's 2016-2017 season, will be presented Saturday and Sunday, December 3-4, at Mendocino College Center Theatre. Performed under the direction of conductor Les Pfutzenreuter, it features two major compositions: Maurice Ravel's Piano Concerto for the Left Hand featuring pianist Lawrence Holmefjörd-Sarabi; and Symphony No. 9 in E minor, "From the New World," Opus 95, by Antonín Dvořák.

Maurice Ravel (1875-1937) was commissioned to write a piano concerto by Paul Wittgenstein, an Austrian musician who lost his right hand while fighting in World War I. Wittgenstein wasn't too impressed with the result at first, but eventually changed his mind. "Only much later, after I'd studied the concerto for months, did I become fascinated by it and realize what a great work it was," he said. Created for a large orchestra, the concerto begins with a sense of dark gloom and foreboding, created by bass clarinet, contrabassoon, and low brasses. The music carries the turmoil and chaos of war, enacted by loud crescendos as the orchestra's instruments rise in tone and pitch. And yet that very turmoil creates the seeds of resolution, as the melodic line emerges out of the darkness, with the soloist returning to the opening chords with renewed vigor.

Born in Hawaii and raised there and in nearby Healdsburg, master pianist Holmefjörd-Sarabi now makes his home in Singapore and travels worldwide to perform concerts, study, teach and collaborate. With his brother, Julius, he founded the Aureus Academy, a music school that now enrolls nearly 2,000 students. The first American student to be accepted at Singapore's Yong Siew Toh Conservatory, he went on to win two of the Conservatory's top prizes.

Czech composer Antonín Dvořák (1841-1904) was invited to teach in the United States and yet ended his sojourn early because he missed his native country so much. His stay, however, was notable. Wanting to salute and honor the differences between the old world and new, Dvořák tagged a subtitle to the symphony he composed while visiting there "From the New World." That subtitle eclipsed the title itself, Symphony No. 9 in E minor, and was an important cultural moment, signaling a recognition that the young country need no longer look to Europe to import its cultural forms, but rather could recognize its own native genius. Although his rhythms remained Czech, Dvořák wove in allusions to American tunes such as "Three Blind Mice" and "Yankee Doodle" as well as to African-American spirituals and Native music.

"From the New World," as it came to be known, premiered at Carnegie Hall in December 1893. It quickly caught on and soon was being performed throughout the U.S. as well as back in Europe. Moments of poignant yearning (the English horn solo from the second movement was later turned into a popular song called "Goin' Home" by Harry Burleigh, an African-American musician whom Dvořák met in New York) alternate with rousing passages that evoke the boisterous energy of the still-young republic.

Pfutzenreuter describes the process of preparing an orchestra to play a symphony as a complicated back and forth, with the musicians and conductor working together to bring out the nuances of the piece. This concert will feature about forty-five musicians, playing music Pfutzenreuter describes as "some of the most appealing and musically satisfying of the last 150 years."

Ravel's Piano Concerto for the Left Hand and The New World performances will be on Saturday, December 3rd at 8 p.m. and Sunday, December 4th at 3 p.m. at Mendocino College Center Theatre. Tickets are available at www.ukiahsymphony.org; Mendocino Book Company in Ukiah; and Mail Center, Etc. in Cloverdale. Prices are $25 for adults; $20 for seniors; and free for children under 18 or those with ASB card. For further information please call the Ukiah Symphony hotline at 707 462-0236.

Share this:

Related

21 Responses to Mendocino County Today: Tuesday, Nov. 22, 2016

I keep reading these stupid news reports about the Dakota pipeline. How is it that the Sioux are accommodating this Texas energy company, the local police with attack dogs, the invasive policies of the United States government and its agencies which are funded to objectively evaluate the situation, but are in fact bribed off and subsequently do not do their jobs? Also, what are all of these so-called peaceful protesters doing there as winter approaches in the Dakotas anyway? It’s going to be colder than cold, yet another crazy American conflict situation, and nobody will win no matter what. That’s aside from the fact that the only response that the machine ever appreciates is from those who fight back. When is U.S. media going to come right out and say that the only resolution to any conflict such as this, is to kill the machine? Just wondering, ya know? Thanks for listening.

Hush hush, Craig — Remember your new mantra: Ignorance is bliss… Or in the simpleton’s wordy and awkward preachment you posted above, “allowing the garbage in your mind to be let go of until emptiness is achieved, then you may enjoy unalloyed bliss continually.”

Go back to the Temple of the Universe, Craig, (it’s cold and harsh out there in the Badlands facing down armored goons) and clear all these unpleasant thoughts from your otherwise empty little head, my dear boy, it’s all an illusion, maya, a mist, just wave it away, ignorance is bliss… ignorance is bliss… ignorance is bliss… there there, hush hush… ignorance is bliss…

I am leaving shortly for Lincoln city, OR for Thanksgiving and back November 29, . lots of rain and taking along two books “Black Hole” by Marcia Bartusiak and”Christianity Without God” by lloyd Geering.

There is an equestrian statue of Honest Abe, but unlike Gen. Grant on Cincinnatus, Abe is riding a grazing horse bareback and reading a book — it is in the Lincoln City Park, up above town — and I’m curious, what’s that book he’s reading? If you have time check it out and let me know.

Kunstler states, “It looks like the shit sandwich President Obama has carefully prepared and left in the White House pantry for his successor will take the form of inflation, the dying of your money — or, at least, paper currency. Or, if it doesn’t die outright, prepare for the possibility that you might not be able to get your hands on it, as money markets gate their exits and banks restrict cash withdrawals.”

He is eluding to a problem that we should not blame Obama for, or anyone else in Washington. We like to blame, and blame. The problem is us, and our addiction to “free money”, or “money we deserve”, or “money we need”, or how about “other people’s money”, etc. Currently our central government debt is about $60,000 per citizen, $80,000 per income tax payer. This is a doubling in the last ten years. I don’t know how much it is per tax payer who actually pays taxes. Remember, we also have a near future train wreck of unfunded Medicare and SS obligations that exceed the value of the assets of the United States. And we have a public pension debt crisis that can be solved, “with more time and money.” Kunstler is speculating on how all this plays out, but in general terms, he is right.

A currency crisis is certainly in our future, at some point, as baby boomers get into their 70s and 80s. Other countries are in the same boat. An international currency crisis that effects a broad range of currencies around the world would be a new thing, as far as I know.

Like the timing for an earthquake on the San Andreas, one can not say exactly when it will happen, only that it will happen, and it can happen pretty quickly and be destructive. So it is always good to make sure your house is well attached to it’s foundation.

“Remember, we also have a near future train wreck of unfunded Medicare and SS obligations that exceed the value of the assets of the United States.”

That’s right George, it’s all the fault of old codgers like myself, who had Social Security and Medicare taxes deducted from their paychecks all their working lives–in my case more than 50 years, and who now refuse to drop dead or stop eating.

It has nothing to do with American foreign policy of defending the interests of multinational corporations on five continents; a thousand military bases all over the world; huge contracts to companies like Lockheed Martin; or six billion dollar subsidies to Israel.

It has nothing to do with the off-shoring of jobs and profits by corporations like Apple, nothing to do with derivatives of derivatives issued by investment banks–who expect taxpayers to bail them out when they’ve lost all their money in the casino, and nothing to do with the privatization of everything.

Nothing to do with low-life politicians like the Clintons and Obama who are bought and paid for well before they come into office and pursue policies like increasing charter schools, bailing out banks, subsidizing corporations and rich people, and squandering the country’s resources–like trees, farmland, and natural resources. And by increasing the number of imperial wars which are financed by treasury bonds which cause more debt. And by approving “trade treaties” which make it easier to destroy peoples’ lives.

Let’s blame the victims: immigrants who are paid coolie wages to do horrible jobs working for tax avoiders like Wal-Mart, Hormel, or Tyson Chicken; students who are obliged to pay exorbitant tuitions to pay for football stadia and parasitical administrators; retired people who have the temerity to expect Social Security, pensions, and subsidized medical care that they’ve paid for; and children who expect free public education.

Louis, my SSI retirement won’t even pay my bar tab, so I’m condemned to freeload off the government and work, too. Having worked shit-jobs all my life, I can only qualify for the minimum. And things keep going up — last night at happy hour I was treated to the sobering news that the cheapest beer at the Forest Club has gone up! I came budgeted for two beers, but could only afford one! Everything’s going up, up and up, everything but my pay! And I see all these young people who have never had a job getting SSI because their mommies ran their daddies off and they never got up off the couch after that — mommy’s little angle, angels like Eric Sunsweat and Craig Stehr — they get three or four times as much SSI as I do, and never paid in a dime! Please, Louis, lend me your hanky, quick, I’m blubbering all over my keyboard…

Misread your thoughts: I thought you were defending use of two exclamation marks or question marks in Spanish–which I like because it tells the reader what kind of sentence he’s reading at the beginning of the sentence.

Within the category of ‘freeloaders’ must be included the war department, which owes about $2.5 trillion to Social Security, money it ‘borrowed’ to finance our wars on people of color who simply refuse to do as we ‘enlightened and exceptional’ ones order.

JHK started his career as a prophet back when the Y2K alarmists were having a field day; and he was easily the shrillest and surest that Western Civilization would crumble on that date. When it happened otherwise, JHK, using what psychologists call confirmation bias, revamped his act into the now-familiar Long Emergency theme, based on the gambler’s notion that sooner or later he’s going to hit it right on and be vindicated — so he can tell us he told us so, I guess. Or maybe he’s found a way to make prophesy pay. But he’s too lively and irreverent a writer for me to despise.

Also keep in mind that, like the prophets in Biblical times, all it takes is an awareness that disasters are cyclical — in those days famine & drought were predictable recurrences, just like financial meltdowns are in Modern Times.

Yes, financial meltdowns are cyclical, and predictable, but are always treated like some black swan event that came out of the blue. The housing loan crisis that created the bank crisis was predictable, so was the dot-com meltdown, and the S&L before that, and the inflation crisis before that, and etc. But look at all those who suffered, because these events were not going to happen. And those who suffered were often those who were over leveraged, and “worth millions.” They were supposed to be the smart ones. Warren Buffet says, “When the tide goes out, you find out who is swimming naked.” But I digress.

What is happening now is a leveraged society that sees the rate of leverage out pace economic growth, by a lot. This has been going on for a while and is projected to continue for a while. It obviously can not go one forever, and I am speculating it can’t go on for the next 30 years, ending when the baby boomers have die off. The real black swan event would be if in the next 15 years 3/4s+ of the baby boomers somehow died off leaving their offspring. Of course if that happened, I would be wrong, the country would be saved, and I likely would be dead.

The SS excess went into the general fund and was spent by government. It is a payroll tax to pay for government. The SS trust fund, de facto, never existed. We say it does. We say we “borrowed” from it. But when all is said and done, regardless of how that money is handled, in order to pay for SS when SS begins to fall short, the money will have be borrowed, or collected from a tax. We can blame any government agency, or any economic group that we choose, the reality remains the same.

Re Woodhouse: if Woodhouse is indeed bi-polar or suffering from some other severe psychological disorder, it is likely a condition that was preexisting and undisclosed prior to his election as Supervisor. If that is so, then why can’t he be discharged (fired) from his position and denied all County benefits rather than have the taxpayers take the fall? Just wondering as I don’t know the legalities involved.

Re Trump: Kunstler makes an excellent point about his children. I once hired someone because I knew his kids were extraordinarily well-adjusted and behaved. It was the deciding factor in a three way tie as to other qualifications between applicants for the position. That hire turned out to be one of the best staff members I ever had, and his kids (high school and elementary school at the time of his hiring) have gone on to graduate from Cal Poly and UCLA with honors. So before piling on any further, why not give Trump at least a chance?

Most likely Mr. Woodhouse is mad, but not the kind of mad everyone is being led to believe. I bet he has an interesting tale to tell.

This is why I stay out of Mendocino County, with two ex-wives, CEO Angelo, and the Schraeders, I would never see the light of day again. I suspect a frontal lobotomy would be pursued by all the above and granted in Judge Henderson’s court. He once screamed at me for what he called Polygamy.

KZYX’s new GM, Jeffrey Parker, was my first choice to succeed John Coate in December 2015, back when I was on the KZYX Board. Lorraine Dechter was hired instead.

I wish Mr. Parker all the luck in the world with the incestuous, inbred lot at KZYX.

Where I come from — KZYX — one royal family riddled with incest rules the kingdom. Ignoring rules of consanguinity and good broadcasting has kept various family members in front of the microphone for generations.

What’s the downside? (Aside from the inherent grossness, of course.) The overlapping of redundant and boring genetic material lowers the quality of broadcasting to something far less than the good people of Mendocino County deserve.

“True, we don’t tie ourselves in knots over a discreet bit of buggery, but… brothers and sisters? Where I come from, that stain would be very difficult to wash out.”

―- Olenna Tyrell to Tywin Lanniste, on incest, from “The Game of Thrones”